Obama breaks into laughter when reporter asks him to respond to Trump's thoughts on his legacy

President
Barack Obama laughs during a press conference in
Laos.REUTERS/Jonathan
Ernst

President Barack Obama couldn't seem to contain his amusement
when asked whether he wanted to defend his legacy against a slew
of Donald Trump's insults.

During a press conference in Laos, a reporter asked Obama whether
he wanted to "defend his legacy" against the Republican
presidential nominee's claims that Russian President
Vladimir Putin was "more of a leader" than Obama, and that Obama
had "reduced American generals to rubble."

The president reiterated that he believes Trump
holds "contradictory, uninformed, or outright
wacky" policy opinions, and that he is unqualified to handle
the responsibilities of the presidency. Obama also cautioned that
voters and reporters could be normalizing Trump's inflammatory
statements.

"Every time he speaks, that opinion is confirmed," Obama said.

He added: "Somehow behavior that in normal times we'd consider
completely unacceptable is normalized and people start thinking
we should be grading on a curve."

Obama's reaction to Trump's attack on his legacy comes as the
real-estate magnate has attempted to contrast his foreign-policy
vision with Obama's in relentless, often creative ways. In
August, Trump said Obama was the "founder
of ISIS" and has occasionally argued both that Obama did not
do enough to stop the terrorist organization in Syria and
that the Middle East would be safer if Obama had not
intervened at all.